State and local officials Wednesday announced the upcoming opening of the new Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway in Phoenix, adding 22 miles to the metropolitan area’s existing transportation system.

The South Mountain Freeway begins where the existing Loop 202 meets Interstate 10, with southwest Chandler to the east and the Phoenix neighborhood of Ahwatukee to the west, and travels west before turning north through Laveen and reconnecting with I-10 at 59^th Avenue.

The announcement, which took place at the new freeway bridges over the Salt River, marks the culmination of the largest single freeway project in Arizona’s history. The project was completed three years ahead of schedule and with $100 million in savings through an “innovative partnership,” according to the Office of the Arizona Governor.

Gov. Doug Ducey was joined for the announcement by Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego; Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis of the Gila River Indian Community; John Halikowski, director of the Arizona Department of Transportation; Tempe Mayor Mark Mitchell, who also serves as chairman of the Maricopa Association of Governments; Karla Petty, Arizona division administrator for the Federal Highway Administration; Michael Bidwill, president of the Arizona Cardinals football team; and a number of other local officials, legislators and transportation stakeholders.

“Decades in the making, this opening marks a historic achievement for Arizona,” Ducey said. “Arizona has benefited from the foresight and innovation of past leaders who have positioned our state as a trade and transportation hub.”

This latest segment of the Loop 202 has been designated the Congressman Ed Pastor Freeway, named in honor of the first Latino elected to represent Arizona in Congress. Pastor passed away last year at 75; members of his family were present for the freeway announcement.

“It took over 30 years to make this dream a reality and a lot of people coming together,” Gallego said. “This will be a major corridor for improved transportation, housing, and high wage jobs. Investing in road infrastructure is so important and part of a regional transit plan that also brings more resources to light rail, buses, walking and biking paths, and safety measures.”

“Arizona has solidified its reputation as a state that is open for opportunity, and as we welcome hundreds of new residents, every day we are making sure our infrastructure remains some of the best in America,” Ducey said. “This Loop 202 opening represents a big step forward in connecting the East and West valleys, as well as prioritizing safety for drivers.”

Loop 202 dates back to 1983, when the proposal for a freeway on the south side of South Mountain was first introduced; it was originally called the Southwest Loop Highway.The transportation corridor has been approved by voters twice as part of the Maricopa Association of Governments’ Regional Transportation Plan — through Proposition 300 in 1985 and Proposition 400 in 2004 — but construction did not begin until 2016, after more than a decade of planning, coordination and study.

“This has been a long time in the making,” said Arizona State Sen. Sean Bowie, LD-18, who was born the year after the freeway was first proposed. “It’s a historic day for Ahwatukee. We’re excited to finally see this freeway open and connect the East Valley to the West Valley and, hopefully, alleviate some of the traffic that folks endure on the I-10 getting back and forth to downtown Phoenix.”

Bowie said that because the freeway project has remained on the table for so long, Ahwatukee residents who purchased their home within the past few decades have been aware of the potential new transportation corridor for a while. He said design changes were made in response to concerns from local residents, including an interchange at 32nd Street, near Desert Vista High School, that was not in the original plans.

“I got a tour of the freeway a couple weeks ago and got to drive the entire stretch of it, and I think when it’s done– I think it’s a pretty nice freeway,” Bowie said. “A lot of folks, I think, are going to be happy with it.”

Bowie said his priority in the coming weeks is to work with ADOT to address lingering issues expressed by local residents.

“This new highway — the largest highway project in state history — represents Arizona’s continued commitment to 21^st century infrastructure that will enable our state’s growth for generations to come,” Ducey said. “My thanks go out to the many federal, state, local, tribal and community partners who have worked tirelessly over the past decades to help make this vision a reality.”

Header photo of Loop 202 sign property of .

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The National Science Foundation (NSF) has granted Phoenix College nearly $1.5 million to support integrating research, mentoring and industry collaborations to improve STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) recruitment and retention among minority students at the college. The grant comes as part of the first round of grants from the NSF’s Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions program, also known as the HSI program.

“The National Science Foundation has a strong commitment to promoting the health, prosperity and welfare of the nation by broadening participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” said Dr. Talitha Washington, co-lead program director of the NSF HSI program.

Phoenix College had to meet a rigorous set of merit requirements to be chosen for the competitive HSI grant.

“All proposals for HSI funding go through NSF’s gold-standard merit review process that identifies which projects to support,” Washington said. “That process considers both the technical aspects of a proposed project and its potential to contribute more broadly to advancing NSF’s mission.”

Phoenix College is part of the Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD), one of the largest community college systems in the United States. Out of a total of 10 campuses, all of which are regionally-accredited, six are now designated as Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), and more will follow.

“What is really great about our colleges is that we serve a large percentage of Hispanic students, and many of them are first-generation college students,” said Robin Cotter, professor of biosciences at Phoenix College and one of the primary project team members who authored the NSF grant proposal.

Maricopa Community College faculty used their free time to form the grant proposal in the hope that they might introduce their students to more research opportunities that will better prepare them for the workforce, Cotter said.

“Many of us come from research backgrounds, and we know that helping our students make connections with industry and university partners is key to their success as they move along that pathway toward their career,” Cotter said. “So we decided to take our free time — we weren’t paid to do this — and we worked together to develop this application. It included faculty from biology, psychology, math, geology, physics; and we all worked together to develop this proposal that then competed at the national level.”

This is the first time this particular grant has been offered by the NSF to HSIs nationwide. Among the applicants were community colleges and universities, including Research I (R1) Universities — highly competitive research institutions. The grant will fund Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) for students at Phoenix College, and the program is expected to impact more than 3,000 community college students.

The MCCCD schools have teaching laboratories but no independent research labs, inadvertently withholding vital opportunities from students hoping to find careers in STEM fields. The CURE model inserts research directly into community college coursework.

“We decided that since we couldn’t give our students independent research opportunities, we were going to embed it into our curriculum,” Cotter said. “And nationwide, they’re telling us that embedding practical applications of knowledge is the best way to teach students and prepare them.”

Phoenix College is already partnering with local businesses and governments to create opportunities for students to build practical skills. At the request of industry leaders, the college is making workforce training a core part of its curriculum, putting students in touch with industry partners within the first two years of their academic careers.

“I’m really excited to say that we’re partnering with the City of Surprise and their water treatment plant,” Cotter said. “We’re going to identify ways that we can look for micro-plastics and other pollutants in our water system, and then we’re going to have the students work on ways of removing them in order to improve water quality across the region.”

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is another partner. Students who work with the USDA will look at the impact of environmental factors, including pesticides, on the survival of crop pollinators such as honeybees.

“The honeybee population is important to the agricultural community here in Arizona and nationwide,” Cotter said. “So we’re going to be working with the USDA, based out of Tucson, and the students will be studying what actually impacts honeybee health and how this can be resolved so that we can maintain these pollinators that are necessary for our agricultural community.”

One of the NSF’s goals is to gain a better understanding of how to enhance undergraduate STEM education at HSIs, Washington said.

“The HSI program seeks to increase the number of STEM undergraduate students, who ultimately will become STEM professionals,” Washington said. “It seeks to increase retention and graduation rates for STEM students at HSIs and to increase the number of STEM educators and students at HSIs that have little or no prior NSF funding.”

Phoenix College received the NSF grant as the result of faculty-driven collaboration between all 10 MCCCD campuses, Cotter said.

“We recognize the need to train our students for the workforce, and that it’s really built on community partnerships, and we encourage anybody who wants to be involved to reach out to us,” Cotter said.

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